Bridge Educational Gaps for 300 Girls in Kenya.

Dear friends,

We are delighted to update you on the progress of our project, Bridge Educational Gaps for 100 Orphan Girls. As we told you in our last post, the region is still experiencing an educational crisis. Many teachers have left the region for fear of an attack by extremist groups. Luckily, Elwak Girls, the project location, have been spared of the worst exodus of teachers.  The project activities have in away improved the morale of the teachers, and this was made possible by your kind donations. Thank you.

In terms of pupils progress, a lot have changed since our last report. End of second term exam analysis have been completed, and the findings are very encouraging. Most of the pupils have made good progress both in terms of their position in class and their mean score. School attendance has improved dramatically. According to the school administration and interviews with parents, the girls are very keen to attend school and their confidence during lessons has improved.  The school has also introduced extra-curriculum activities such as an environmental club, debating and current affairs discussions after school and some sporting activities.

Through debating and current affairs activities, pupils are encouraged to develop their language and thinking skills which are crucial for their personal development.

The project has also attracted support from the local community.  Recently a local environmental group called Nomadic Green Belt Movement provided support to the school's environment Club. Nearly forty new trees were planted, and the pupils have promised take care of the plants. Hopefully, in a year's time, the currently bare school compound will have adequate shade for the children. 

Also, we organised a youth forum to discuss the current educational crisis and the general decline in literacy and numeracy levels in the Elwak Sub-County. Nearly sixty volunteers attended the forum and have promised to support a planned campaign on literacy improvement as part of our project next term. We are very happy with the level of support and enthusiasm shown by the youth, and we are confident they will support the initiative once it's launched.

The microcredit scheme component of the project is equally doing well. The five ladies involved have managed to save Ksh 7000 (£45) and are due to receive £320 loan from the project once they have received basic business management training.  Thank you for your support once again for enabling us make a wider impact on our community.

We are also happy to report that a team of volunteers at Dentsu Aegis Network have organised a charity bike ride called Route2Good  from Amsterdam to Paris in October to raise funds for our project. Without your donations, this would not have been possible. Thank you. You can access their fundraising below and support them with whatever you can.